Air Force Capt. Kirk Riggs of the 16th Special Operations Wing, Hurlburt Field, Fla., will receive the inaugural Florida National Defense Space Award on Nov. 17 at the closing of the Florida Space 2005 conference at the Kennedy Space Center. The National Space Club Florida Committee created the award to recognize significant achievements made by DOD personnel while on duty in Florida. The committee chose Riggs for his development of a Web-based Global Positioning System communications planning tool that allows special operations aircrews to hit targets accurately over enemy territory. The Air Force selected Riggs to write up the procedures in Air Force Doctrine.
Members of Congress from both parties expressed frustration and dismay over the abrupt and still-unexplained firing last month of Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh from his dual role as head of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency.